August Road Trip, Heading West

Like our drive to Minneapolis, our journey to the Black Hills of South Dakota was around nine hours. Susie alternated between the front seat and the back bed I assembled in the rear of our wagon. As we left Minnesota, our son sent us a few stop recommendations. Unfortunately the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site was closed by the time we were near Rapid City. Nevertheless, we did stop at a festival in front of the Corn Palace, in Mitchell (SD). We enjoyed funnel cake while gazing at a guitar playing maize picture of Willie Nelson.

We stayed for a couple of days in the Black Hills and saw a mixture of flora and fauna in and around Custer State Park. The herd of bison were very impressive. Susie enjoyed the chirping of the prairie dogs and we also saw a couple of pronghorn antelope. The movie at the visitor center, with Kevin Costner narration, was excellent.

We ended our first day seeing the sunset over the trees at Mount Rushmore. By the time we got back to our hotel, the Bavarian Inn, Susie was too tired to go out for dinner. So, we had a luxurious bowl of cereal on our balcony.

We visited the Wounded Knee Massacre site, which IMHO was a pitifully sore site for documenting this tragedy in our nation’s handling of Native Americans. We ended our westerly travels enjoying yellow sunflower fields, a brief stop in Alliance, NE to see Carhenge and a delicious steak dinner at Poor Richards in Cheyenne, WY. We will spend a couple of nights in Denver and then head south to return home.